The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the august body that keeps straight the top-level domains of the Internet, would like you to know the Internet has gotten too crowded.

Since people like you refuse to get off it to leave more space for people at ICANN, ICANN has had to do something to reduce the overcrowding.

(Actually it had to do something about the overcrowding starting in June of 2008, when it announced it would expand the number of top-level domains and thereby the number of virtual addresses available; until now it hasn't gotten around to actually making those changes, but has talked about it enough to give the appearance of activity to those who don't look too closely.)

After three years of discussion over how many new top-level domains should join the existing 22 (somewhere between "a few" and "thousands" has been the best estimate), ICANN took a huge step last June: it announced again it would increase the number of top-level domains at some time in the future.